who am i?

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Lessons From C.S Lewis...

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” - C.S Lewis. Screwtape Letters. (God is referred to as the enemy in this letter between two demons)

Fact that we're not robbing banks, sleeping around or killing people doesn't make us better than the robbers and murderers if we lie(even the little white lie), gossip, cheat and do all those 'little' sins we accommodate. That's why judging is so deadly...

It takes grace to obey the law of loving everyone. Why love or even talk to Joy if she sleeps around? Or why watch and love Ellen if she's gay? or why love GEJ because he hasn't met your expectations... Why not have a nice time hauling insults at the people who go against what you accept and what is acceptable in God's eyes?...

“I remember Christian teachers
telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions but not hate
the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner.
...I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could
you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later it
occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all
my life -- namely myself. However much I might dislike my own
cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself. There had never
been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact the very reason why I
hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself,
I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things.”
C. S Lewis, Mere Christianity

Reading this gave me a little insight on how we can make it somewhat easy to love... It's not easy, but i guess with a conscious effort we're able to love and pray for our 'enemies' and forgive them like Jesus commanded.
(sometimes you have to separate yourselves from certain people,especially if you're easily influenced, loving them doesn't mean you let yourself get influenced by them. Loving from afar works fine)